Falcons at Chargers

A certain Los Angeles Times columnist who shall remain nameless (T.J. Simers) has written he has a hunch the Chargers will be in L.A. by March. That T.J., what a cutup. He’s a master at getting you to pull his finger. In this case, though, he may be right — if all the Chargers attend a Lakers game.

So I mention this to Mark Fabiani, the Chargers’ point man for getting a new stadium built in San Diego, and after five seconds of laughter, he says: “Not that I know of. If anything, the news out of L.A. makes a move there any time soon less likely.”

Here’s the latest deal. We’re all well aware AEG (Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz) has been working on getting a new stadium built in downtown L.A. to attract a current NFL team. Because the Chargers can get out of their Qualcomm Stadium lease between Feb. 21 and April 29 every year up to 2020 (when the contract expires), they’re always the first ones mentioned when L.A. comes up.

Qualcomm Stadium may be a dump, and the Chargers can’t play there forever, but boss Dean Spanos has been overly patient on this thing. He doesn’t want to move, or he could have gone long ago. The Chargers don’t have to stink for him to skedaddle to L.A., where his franchise would be worth much more.

Now comes word that Anschutz, who never was excited about the NFL in the first place, is selling AEG, probably to Patrick Soon-Shiong. And it’s instantly assumed — as only L.A., the world leader in assuming, can assume — Soon-Shiong, the richest man in the TMZ and a football fan, will get it all done and get it done quickly.

Well, Patrick may be worth $7 billion, or whatever, but he still lives in California, and we don’t lead the league in getting things done. There is no new stadium in L.A. The NFL owners aren’t keen on the downtown site (they always have preferred Chavez Ravine). An owner would have to be insane to move a team there, probably to the Rose Bowl for a while, without 100-percent assurance the stadium would be built.

But every time L.A. opens its trap we get blasted by social media. I received a tweet from a guy who wonders if the Chargers-Falcons game won’t be sold out this week because of the constant threats by the team to move to L.A.

Look. I’ve been on this story — the possibility of the Chargers bolting is the biggest sports story in the history of this city — for 10 years. If the Chargers ever have threatened to move to Los Angeles or anywhere else, I’d like somebody to show me the quote. Good luck. There isn’t one to find. We, the media, and the fans and the L.A. wannabes are the ones who have manufactured the threats.

I’m not naïve to the point of saying they’ll never move. But they never have threatened to.

Meanwhile, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has announced that any franchise interested in relocating to L.A. must file its intentions to The League by January.

“There’s a Feb. 1 deadline with that and I would say we’re not triggering it,” Fabiani says. “I’ll be very surprised if we aren’t having the same conversation this time next year. I don’t think anything’s going to be happening to change our position. We want to work with the new mayor and get something done here (and hopefully get it on the November 2013 ballot). I would be shocked if we filed an application in January.

“What’s happening in L.A. with the potential sale (of AEG) is just going to delay things for months. This isn’t like selling a car. It will take months and months to sell it.”

Fabiani says people assume too much.

“No. 1,” he says, “they assume Anschutz will sell, and he’s a tough negotiator. No. 2, there’s the assumption the NFL will want it to happen. These are huge assumptions.

“To tell you the truth, I should be saying this is a grave threat to San Diego, but it isn’t. If and when somebody buys AEG, that new person may not like the agreement with the city. A long time ago Tim Leiweke (AEG’s mouthpiece) said they’d break ground in June 2012. Here we are in September and they still don’t have a certified EIR and now they may not even have an owner.”

Beware the L.A. bluster. It comes in like a hot Santa Ana and then fades to a cool zephyr.